Definition of "myrmidon"

myrmidon

/ˈmɜː.mɪˌdɒn/

noun
plural myrmidons
1. A soldier or a subordinate civil officer who executes orders of a superior without protest or pity (sometimes applied to bailiffs, constables, etc).
  Quotations
  Tobias (to Jonas Fogg, manager of a madhouse): "I will die ere I submit to you or your vile myrmidons."
  1847, George Dibdin Pitt, The String of Pearls; or, The Fiend of Fleet Street (play), act III, scene II
  When the day came round for my return to the scene of the deed of violence, my terrors reached their height. Whether myrmidons of Justice, especially sent down from London, would be lying in ambush behind the gate; […]
  1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter XII, in Great Expectations […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861
  He cared no more for the Devil and all his myrmidons, for he kenned brawly he was damned.
  1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
  My heart wells up in admiration of the man, as I think of his participation in the memorable struggle of Homestead. He fought the Pinkertons, the myrmidons of Capital.
  1912, Alexander Berkman, chapter 6, in Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist
  […] headed for a revelation to the District Attorney that would probably result in my having the pleasure of meeting H. R. Corbett or some other flatfooted myrmidon […]
  1934, Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance, Bantam edition edition, published 1992, pages 177–178